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It’s Vaudeville Without the Tomatoes

On the first day, the House of Ninja visited the house of worship. And the people in St. Mark’s Church saw that it was good.

This glorious coming together occurred on the opening day of “Body Madness,” the latest installment of Danspace Project’s Platform series (and the first to have Judy Hussie-Taylor, Danspace’s executive director, as the curator). It began Thursday night with “voix de ville,” an evening created by Cori Olinghouse and featuring “Elements of Vogue,” a too-short appearance by Archie Burnett and Javier Ninja.

Both men are New York club royalty: Mr. Burnett is known for his innovative freestyling, while Mr. Ninja, as his bio puts it, “vogued his way out of the womb.” They are electric. The energy in St. Mark’s fairly smoldered as soon as they strutted their stuff in and only intensified as Mr. Ninja wound his delicious limbs in archly elegant formations. As for Mr. Burnett — well, let’s just say it’s no mean feat to do a split in Levis.

It’s always a treat to see club dancers recognized on the concert stage. Credit to Ms. Olinghouse, who invited the men as part of a tribute to, and reimagining of, vernacular traditions. A former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Ms. Olinghouse now studies voguing with Mr. Burnett and Benny Ninja; it’s fascinating to see the diversity of movement and theatrical influences in her body. (She is also a student of clowning.)

Photo

Cori Olinghouse, left, and Eva Schmidt in “The Animal Suite,” part of “voix de ville,” at St. Mark’s Church.Credit
Tom Brazil

The first piece in “voix de ville” is “The Animal Suite: Experiments in Vaudeville and Shapeshifting.” Created by Ms. Olinghouse and her fellow performers — Neal Beasley, Kai Kleinbard, Mina Nishimura and Eva Schmidt — it is in part an exploration of this movement diversity, reframed in a contemporary context and rife with tension.

“The Animal Suite” is almost always on the verge of flying to pieces. Tap routines (done barefoot), the Charleston, clowning, Buster Keaton and a multitude of other references are woven into loose skits, the performers floating through the space (evocatively lighted by Roderick Murray ) and leaving a trail of props behind.

Andy Jordan’s costumes, including oversize glosses on 1920s-era outfits and whimsical avian and ursine creations, are a delight, as are the tree branches (by Kelly Hanson) that the performers fashion into a makeshift proscenium frame as they recreate a scene from Keaton’s “Playhouse.”

There are striking moments here. And yet that threat of flying to pieces always seems a bit too carefully managed and underlined, with Jake Meginsky’s sound design further emphasizing rather clunky transitions and an atmosphere that veers into the precious. Ms. Olinghouse is in great territory, but perhaps needs to find her way to a truer, wilder sense of strangeness.

Still, she is closer to finding it than Kota Yamazaki is in “Itsuko san.” The third component of “voix de ville,” this short solo featured Mr. Yamazaki in drag, his face powdered and harshly made up, his red dress and pink tights topped by a pink-and-purple wig. And yet, it seemed a muted echo of many a drag fantasy concocted by the Butoh giant Akira Kasai.